Belmopan Mayor Finally Breaks Silence on Allegations of Irregularities

Late last year, five councilors from the Belmopan City Council made serious allegations against Mayor Sheran Palacio. They claimed that Palacio was mishandling funds, and was not operating with transparency and in accordance with the Belmopan City Council Act. The mayor declined all requests for an interview to ventilate the allegations and several months went by. But tonight, she has broken her silence on those allegations. She told News Five that she chose to ignore the noise and focus on generating money to stay afloat. But she also said that she was disappointed by the claims made against her which she learned of in the news.

Sheran Palacio

Sheran Palacio, Mayor, Belmopan

“For me to get out there and follow all that was being said – I kept quiet. So, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to say a few words. The bottom line is, I always echoed that I inherited nothing. When it comes to bills at City Hall, I have my competent team here who will be able to speak a little bit more, but my job, and I continue doing the same thing, is to get creative and do things differently. I cannot remember all the points at this time because time has healed – I must say I was very disappointed when I saw what I saw. Definitely the Councilors had their own – I wouldn’t say personal agendas but whatever – I cannot speak for them, but all I can say and I’m going to say it publicly, those allegations are false. Definitely, where we’re at right now speaks for itself, so the accusations and so on have to disappear and there’ll come a point when I’ll be to look at them one by one. I haven’t even internalize them to say that I remember all the points, but I know the finances part was there, and it was rather disappointing because there’s nothing for me to say that I can touch or there’s anything irregular but again when you have persons who are having their own agendas, then these kinds of issues come out.”

Marion Ali

“What’s the relationship now between you and them?”

Sheran Palacio

“I would say continuously getting better and in my mind, I never had a bad relationship with them.”